News.

From 27th to 29th of September 2017 a conference on “Coping with Uneven Development: Socio-economic and political responses to regional  polarization” was organized in Leipzig by the RegPol² project, which  Geomedia Ltd is a part of. The meeting focused on policy formations that  advance social, economic and territorial cohesion in the...

On the 24th of March, Statistics Estonia acknowledged their best cooperation partners. The Best of the Year award was handed out already for the second time. Rivo Noorkõiv from the consulting and training center Geomedia received the title as statistic friendly research partner for 2015. The nomination of research partners focused on the published...

In the Quarterly Bulletin of Statistics Estonia 3/2017 an article was  published by Geomedia Ldt consultant Rivo Noorkõiv and Lääne-Nigula  municipality leader Mikk Lõhmus focusing on “The Amalgamation Reform: An overview of the events and first conclusions”. The amalgamation reform  resembles the systematic restructuration of local governments in  re-independent Estonia after...

On behalf of the local government union of Pärnu county and Pärnu county government, Geomedia conducted an analysis of local government territorial scenarios. Against the backdrop of the ongoing administrative reform, the administrative-territorial options for Pärnu county were explored on three dimensions: territorial amalgamation of local government units, the fragmentation of local government territory into...

On 26^th of September 2017 the 2^nd Estonian Municipality Day took  place, which was dedicated to the 100^th Anniversary of the Republic of  Estonia and the restoration and development of local government units and unions in the years 1989-2017. In the course of this event, an  edited volume was published that...

Applying the Village Elder Model is one way to organize rural life. Village elder based organization of local life is strongly linked to the general performance of the culture and local government. The duty of a village elder is not to fulfil orders of the municipality government, but to function as a leader for...

The third Tartu Planners‘ Conference took place on November, 2.-3. 2017. It mainly focused on the issue of planning and ethics, which was covered in the plenary speech by the Head of the Ethic Center of the University of Tartu, Prof. Margit Sutrop. However, the conference panels also discussed: planning methods, architectural planning, infrastructure...

On 20th of April 2016 a discussion forum devoted to the topic "Local Government Reform - will it succeed this time?" took place at the conference center of the Estonian Parliament. It was organized in cooperation with the Estonian City Union and County Government Union, Harjumaa Municipality Union, the Estonian Parliament, NGO Polis and...

Geomedia is preparing the population forecast for Viimsi rural municipality. The objective is to analyze and forecast the number of residents and changes in age-proportions in the municipality until 2035. The analysis will apply the scenario-building method, on which basis the possible changes of these indicators will be forecasted and future calculations performed.

Sociologist Ivi Proos and human geographer Rivo Noorkõiv discuss in the amalgamation reform blog how the amalgamation reform and the merger of local government units influence village communities and which opportunities communities have to take part in the merger negotiations. What influences peoples attitudes towards rural and urban municipality mergers, why are their opinions so...